Paleoclimatology

The Hill Biogeochemistry Lab at BML aims to understand climate change in the past and present ocean, spanning geologic (past 1 million years) to human timescales (past 100 years, and future). We are interested in large-scale ocean processes (e.g., circulation changes) down to bays, estuaries, and coastal environments.

Human activities are altering the chemistry, temperature, and sea level of the world’s oceans and research at Bodega Marine Laboratory seeks to understand how these global environmental changes influence coastal marine ecosystems. Rising CO2 also affects the temperature and chemistry of the ocean, which can have negative impacts on many kinds of marine life. As the ocean absorbs CO2 emissions, the pH of seawater decreases and it becomes more acidic.